Seven Years War, North America, Great Lakes, Revolutionary War, British Loyalists, Many Germans, Constitutional Act, Lower Canada, Upper Canada, United States

Upper Canada
By Mary Lynn Bushong

1 After the Seven Years War, the French lost control of most of their lands in North America. The loss for the French was not just in land, but also the profits to be had in the fur trade. Although little changed in the trading posts themselves, changes were quicker to come in the region around the lower Great Lakes.2 The two lower Great Lakes, Ontario and Erie, were to see the most settlement soonest. Right after the Revolutionary War, British Loyalists began making their way north. After the American victory, British supporters were made unwelcome.3 British supporters were not just English. Many were colonists who had been in the Americas for generations. There were also many Scots. Many Germans had come as soldiers in support of Britain. They were the Hessians that Britain hired.4 Those recent arrivals to the colonies joined with established colonists to move to the land that was then called Quebec. The British government did not want to lose them and offered free land for them to come north. Altogether, about 50,000 people took them up on the offer.5 Some families lived in tents for months while their homes and farms were being carved out of the wilderness. Sometimes that included the winter months.